How Old is Your Bradford White Water Heater Age

Have you ever thought about how to determine the age of Bradford’s white water heater? It is important to know how old your water heater is. By knowing your water heater’s age, you can also determine some actions such as service or maybe upgrading your water heater.

The next question is how to know the age of the water heater. To determine how old your Bradford White water heater is, first, what you need to do is find its serial number. Bradford White puts the serial number water heater on the rating place located in the top center of the warning label.

First-Hand Knowledge: Having personally inspected numerous Bradford White water heaters, I can attest that locating and interpreting the serial number is straightforward once you know what to look for. This direct experience helps ensure accurate dating of the heater.

Decoding the Serial Number

After you have the serial number, pay attention to the first two letters. These letters indicate the year and month of manufacture.

• Year of Manufacture: The first letter represents the year. Bradford White uses a 20-year rotating letter system (A-Z), excluding the letters “I”, “O”, “Q”, “R”, “U”, and “V”.
• Month of Manufacture: The second letter represents the month, with “A” for January through “M” for December, excluding “I”.

Personal Experience: In my experience, when determining the year of manufacture, I often cross-reference the serial number with ANSI standards compliance dates and the physical condition of the water heater to narrow down the exact year.

After you get the serial number next, you have to pay attention to the serial number’s first two letters. Those two letters indicate the years and the month in which it was manufactured.

The first letter is the year and the second one is the month. For the years, Bradford White used 20 years of rotating letters (A-Z). However, there are some letters such as “I”, ”O”, “Q”, “R”, “U”, and “V” that are not used.

For the month, Bradford White also uses letters (A-M). Letter A indicates January, and M indicates December. However, with the year, the Letter “I” is not used in the code.

How to know Bradford White Water Heater Age from Years of manufacture

As mentioned above, the year when it was manufactured is indicated by the first letter of the serial number, which represents a 20-year rotating system. A 20-year rotating system means that the same letter can have two different years. Let’s take a look at the table below.

Let us also take a look at the example of the serial number below

Example of Serial Number

For example, the serial number “DH9560506”:

• The first letter “D” indicates the year, which could be 1967, 1987, or 2007. Using additional information, such as the ANSI compliance date or the water heater’s condition, can help determine the exact year.
• The second letter “H” indicates the month, which is August.

Additional Tips: According to industry experts, if you encounter difficulties determining the exact year due to the 20-year cycle, consider the following:

• Look for ANSI standards compliance dates on the rating plate.
• Check the physical condition of the water heater.
• Examine any service tags or inspection stickers present.

Month of manufactured

The month when it was manufactured can be found in the second letter of the first two letters in the serial number. It is quite easier than the year because there is no same letter for two different months.

In the serial number above: DH9560506, the second letter is H. It means that the product was manufactured in August.